Brain circuitry can be studied with BOLD fMRI, but long
stimulation paradigms might be needed to investigate
long-term neuronal modifications. The aim of the study
was to develop a method to activate the rat brain for 2
hours. SD rats (n=10,32213g) under α-chloralose
anesthesia underwent electrical stimulation of the
forepaw. BOLD fMRI was performed at 9.4T using GE-EPI.
We observed sustained and localized BOLD responses with
minimum activated volume loss during 2 hour-stimulation
in varying the frequency at regular intervals and in
using small ISI. We conclude that the applied paradigm
increases the statistical power for connectivity
analysis.

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